Hermitary - Gallery - Photos

While Chinese hermits have existed for centuries, the West has only learned of them in the translated texts of poets and through specialized treatments. Contemporary Chinese hermits have been popularized only recently by Bill Porter, who also translates classics from the Chinese working as Red Pine. Thus, his classic book Road to Heaveni> inspired twO successors: filmmaker Edward Berger, director of Amongst White Clouds, and Chinese editor and journalist Jianfeng Zhan, in thr latter's 2015 book, translated as Journey to Inner Peace and Joy: Tracing Contemporary Chinese Hermits.
These works focus on contemporary hermits, not as histories but travelogs to the Zhongshan mountains to discover, indentify, and interview true hermits. A subsequent phenopmenon is the weekend hermit of recent time, often a young persons, male or female, who leave their urban residences to spend time as a hermit in the mountains, either as an avocation, retreat, or an inspiring respite, rediscovering nature and religious or philosophical practice, a phenomenon explained by a desire to connect to deeper historicalChinese culture.